The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby is mysterious, a little spooky and one of those books you can't put down because you need to know how the story ends.
When ten year old Immy and her parents move from Sydney, Australia to a small English village they shrug off the legend of the ancient and fierce-looking mulberry tree in the backyard of Lavendar Cottage that has cast fear over the village for years. The villagers believe the mulberry tree steals away girls living in the cottage on the eve of their eleventh birthday and they superstitiously cross the road to avoid the mulberry tree and Immy's family. Immy struggles to make friends at her new school, her dad is still not himself after an incident and life is not working out as well as her family had planned.
When Immy starts hearing a mysterious rhyme in her head she is determined to find out what happened to the two missing girls. Immy researches the legend at the local library and has help from her elderly neighbour Jean whose best friend Elizabeth was the second girl to disappear in 1945. Tension rises as Immy's eleventh birthday draws closer when she notices changes in the mulberry tree outside her window. The tree no longer looks angry, but rather tired and weak and even sad. Immy begins to feel sorry for the tree and wonders what could have caused the vicious marks on its trunk. "You can trust me" she told the tree. "I won't hurt you."
Can brave Immy solve the mystery of the mulberry tree before she too disappears on her eleventh birthday?
Happy reading!